Despite 20 years of intensive research, the development of an effective vaccine to combat the worldwide AIDS pandemic remains an elusive goal. Currently, more than 40 million individuals are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and there have been more than 25 million related deaths. Globally, the rate of new infections is alarming, with ten new infections occurring every minute. Ninety-five percent of these infections occur in the developing world. Several significant challenges face the development of an effective HIV vaccine…